How to install a lawn irrigation system attached to recycled water?

[TimGeo]

Well, It's been a while since I've been in the workshop, not much has been going on in the landscaping department, the only thing I've really done since last time was renovating my front lawn, and in the next week or so I'll be doing to nature strip and if I have enough time in the season I'll do the back yard, including some levelling and any modifications.

Today's plan is to figure out irrigation for the lawns, and eventually the whole property, in which case I plan to have stuff set up so that when I'm ready i can just rig up the next zone and plug it in to the existing box which would have solenoids ready to go.

As this will be my first time ever setting up irrigation, I've got a few questions and some confusion about parts.

I did a pressure test on my taps a while ago which was around 400kpa (60psi) and filled a 20L bucket in approx 30 seconds. However this was a while ago and now that I think about it, I did this on the taps at the rear of the house, where I probably should have done it at the main tap, so I'll be doing the test again before anything cos I feel that it might be a bit low.

To keep it simple I'm just starting with the nature strip then I'll move onto the larger front yard etc. But I'm trying to understand which pipe is the must suitable throughout the system. I will be teeing off the recycled water (Purple PEX SharkBite pipe) and I will likely need a filter as I often find my hose triggers getting clogged with unusual debris and have to replace them every few years.

As for the pipe from the tee, I often see that black with blue striped pipe which looks quite beefy that runs from the supply to the solenoids but I'm not clear on diameter, perhaps I can get some advice on pipe selection.

As for running the sprinkler system for the nature strip, I've seen pipe run directly into sprinklers in line, I've also seen setups with an articulated riser. I guess for the extra cost of adding more potential places to leak it's not worth adding the articulated risers?

I'll post back with my water pressure and LPM but if I could get some information to make selecting the right products easier that would be a great help! 

I can only take a guess and say to run 19mm or 25mm poly pipe from the supply to the solenoid bank, then run 19mm poly throughout the system and whatever sprinklers I decide to use which should match the pipe?

thanks

[JacobZ]

Hi @TimGeo,

Welcome back to the Bunnings Workshop community, it's great to see you're getting stuck into some new projects after a year-long hiatus.

I suppose the best thing you can do for myself and our members to assist is to plot out the area with some measurements, the likely location of the irrigation lines and the location of your taps. If you can give us a rough plan on paper, this will help us to offer our best advice.

Most residential applications don't require massive irrigation lines, meaning 13mm Poly Pipe or 19mm Poly Pipe are the best options to look at. The black and blue poly pipe, like this 25mm Blue Poly Pipe, this 32mm Poly Pipe, and this 50mm Poly Pipe, are usually used for larger irrigation systems, such as sport fields, botanical gardens and farms, where a lot of water needs to be moved around.

The 13mm and 19mm poly pipes will connect into residential taps very easily with a variety of accessories to make this as easy as possible. There are filters such as this 13mm Poly Inline Barbed Filter and this 19mm In-Line Barbed Filter which can also be easily integrated into your system.

For lawns, pop-up sprinklers are definitely the way to go as they will activate when water is flowing but be concealed below the level of the grass when it comes time to mow.

Having not installed irrigation systems myself, a lot of my knowledge about irrigation systems comes from our guides and our suppliers' resources. Have a look at Pope's irrigation DIY guides, Holman Industries Pop up Sprinklers and Nozzles and our guides on How To Plan An Irrigation System and How To Install An Irrigation System.

Once you've gotten back to us with a basic plan on a page, I am happy to assist wherever I can to design a system that will work for you.

Jacob